Posted
by
CmdrTacoon Monday August 09, 2010 @12:24PM
from the because-they-can dept.

Slashdot regular Bennett Haselton writes in with an essay on a subject we've dealt with internally at Slashdot for years: user abuses of social news... this time at Digg. He starts
"Alternet uncovers evidence of a 'bury brigade' coordinating efforts to 'bury' left-leaning stories on Digg. Digg had previously announced that the 'bury' button will be removed from the next version of their site, to prevent these types of abuses, but that won't fix the real underlying issue — you can show mathematically that artificially promoting stories is just as harmful in the long run. Here's a simple fix that would address the real problem."

suso writes: The Geek Group, a non-profit technology enthusiast organization, more commonly known as a hackerspace has been slapped with a tax bill of $47,652.78 by their local township. The group had previously filed for tax exempt status, but was told that they didn't need to submit the paperwork. Now, stickers have been placed on their building saying that they must pay current and back property taxes or the building and all the equipment inside will be auctioned off. The Geek Group, which is one of the oldest and largest hackerspaces in the nation, is fighting back to ensure it isn't quashed out of existence by this. This video on Youtube shows one of their recent board meetings and explains all that has happened so far.Link to Original Source

Aviran writes: Ubuntu, the most popular linux distribution is finally out with a new shiny version Ubuntu 7.10 (Gutsy Gibbon). The home page of Ubuntu.com is not updated yet but the release page is live and images of the Linux operation system are available for download.Link to Original Source

An anonymous reader writes: Bruce Crower has made a fascinating modification to traditional internal combustion engines: a fifth and sixth stroke. His six-stroke engine injects water into the hot cylinder to achieve a second power stroke with the expanding steam. The engine "burns" equal amounts of gasoline and water, thereby reducing fuel consumption by a whopping 40%. Could this technology the future of petroleum powered vehicles? More information is available on Wikipedia.Link to Original Source

michaelmalak writes: "The land famous for its love of the automobile and construction of Interstates and other highways, with high-elevation tunnels, viaducts snaking through canyons, and water crossings of up to 20 miles is now outsourcing design and construction of its roads to Asia — not because it's cheaper, but because the U.S. has lost the expertise. According to the Seattle Post-Intelligencer regarding the newly opened span across the Tacoma Narrows, "the American steel industry had imploded, while steel-making — and the expertise needed to build suspension bridges — had moved to Asia" and "the detailed engineering and fieldwork and all the spinning and cable-wrapping equipment... were provided by... Japanese construction giants""

In a scene that is all too often seen at Gentoo nowadays, an initial subject of whether to continue to allow user's contributions on a developer list blew up five days later with developers saying that they didn't care about the community or users, a developer leaving and users "finding it commonplace" in the Gentoo communication channels.

Is this another nail in the coffin leading to a fork or is Gentoo just losing excess baggage?"

tbone1 writes: "Teams from the Indy Racing League are in Indianapolis to prepare for The Indianapolis 500 on the 27th of May. There is a story in the Indianapolis Star about a local Linux programmer who is trying to get the Linux logo on a car. Usually it's the big companies who have year-long deals with the top IRL teams — Marlboro, Target, Motorola, etc — but for a small team racing at the 500 only, a small logo can be purchased for $11,000, or you can be a primary sponsor for about $350,000, and possibly get "Team Linux" in the car's name."

flakeman2 writes: "about a group of people trying to make the world take notice of Linux by sponsoring a race car in the Indy 500. "And just what is it that we will get in return for our support of Tux500? The ability to tell the world that we were a part of putting a car in the Indy 500. We were a part of making the world take notice of Linux. I don't know about you but that is something I want to be a part of.""

UCSF Geek writes: Mark Shuttleworth, the founder of Ubuntu Linux, does not want to position Ubuntu and Linux as a cheap alternative to Windows. As such, Dell will not include open-source software such as Wine, which lets users run Windows programs on Linux, with the PCs it plans to bundle with Ubuntu, he tells eWeek here(http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,2125848, 00.asp). He goes on to say that "while Linux is an alternative to Windows, it is not cheap Windows. Linux has its own strengths, and users should want it because of those strengths and not because it's a cheap copy of Windows."

Posted
by
CmdrTacoon Tuesday April 10, 2007 @09:17AM
from the internet-laughs-at-f-secure dept.

Rajesh writes "According to F-Secure, ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers), the organization responsible for the global coordination of the Internet's system of unique identifiers, should introduce a .safe domain name to be used by registered banks and other financial organizations."

mid-devonian writes: The UK government Education Secretary
will today plead that video-sharing sites have a moral obligation to pull down offensive clips that humiliate teachers in-front of their class. Increasingly, the video capability of the modern cellphone is being used as an anonymous weapon in the age-old battleground between unruly pupils and their hapless teachers. One recent posting on YouTube showed a pupil run up behind a teacher at the blackboard and pull his trousers down as the class bursts out laughing.

rockypg writes: "Gmail seems to have disabled several accounts, accidentally. Affected users are seeing cryptic messages about "lockdown on sector 6". What's interesting is that several users posting on that thread are complaining that important client information or presentations are locked up in their Gmail accounts and that their business is affected due to the outage."